I'm currently adding as many countries to the groups as I can.

The object of these groups is to discuss the military aspects of a country. This includes adding bookmarks, files, albums etc though albums should only be albums covering a wide variety of vehicles - specific vehicles should still go into the vehicle groups and linked to from the bookmarks.

If you want to take over a specific country group then just volunteer!

Once upon a time we used to cater a lot for the military history buffs and they are starting to come back to the web site so I am currently expanding in that direction once again. Its helped, of course, by the fact that i still have all the old military history pages so its just a case of updating them and that is in progress in Database > War Zone or through  Tools > Groups > categories > War.

I am also expanding the Country groups as I expected visitors to set them up themselves but many people seem a bit afraid to create a group but are okay with adding something to a group so expanding we are.

If you would like to become the moderator of any group and it really doesn't involve any great work then let me know and I will transfer ownership to you. All you need do is put something in the blog occasionally and add the odd bookmark, file, album etc. Remmeber to let your web friends know you are running it and ivite them to join.

We now have a twitter feed for reporting military monuments & memorials worldwide.

http://twitter.com/JEDMemorial

You should be able to post details from the location as well as adding an image (subject to your phone's abilities of course)

People sometimes wonder why pages are 'out of date' or 'a different style to the rest'. Well its mainly because of the size of the site. At the last check we some 227,000 files in 43,000 different equipment folders and some of them haven't (literally) been checked for years. Methodically going through every page could literally take years so, apart from odd checking spurts at random, its purely a case of updating them when they are pointed out or someone wants to look at latest information.

I don't normally promote JED on the internet because I like to keep the visitor numbers down but maybe I should? I was looking at one of these keyword search sites and was surprised to discover that there were more than 2.9m links on the internet to JED...

This, of course, would bring traffic problems. But it would also bring an increase in postings on the site... swings & roundabouts I suppose.

But anyway what is your opinion?

Eweribody want to now the price of a howitser or an artilery shell....mortar...or a tank.Comment please when you now something!

The Raba H18 is a 6x6 military heavy utility truck. It's development began in the mid 1980s. The first prototype of this truck was based on the Soviet KamAZ 6x6 truck. The H18 entered service with Hungarian Army in 2004. Vehicle complies with NATO standards.

   The Raba H18 is completed with a MAN cab. Vehicle can be fitted with various bodies, that have a modular design. This military truck has a payload capacity of up to 10 t, depending on road conditions. It can tow artillery pieces or trailers.

   Vehicle is powered by a MAN turbocharged diesel engine, developing 280 hp. The same engine is used on other Raba military trucks. Vehicles used by Hungarian Army are fitted with speed limiters, set at 85 km/h. Vehicle is fitted with a central tyre inflation system. These military trucks have a planned service life of 20 years.

The Gepard anti-material rifles are a family of Hungarian weapons designed to destroy unarmored and lightly armored targets. These long range, large caliber rifles have high accuracy as well as high muzzle velocity. The Gepards originate from World War I anti-tank rifles created to damage the primitive armored vehicles developed by the British. Since then, anti-materiel rifles fell into disuse. Heavier tanks meant thicker armor, which even the heaviest rifles could not pierce. However, in 1987 the Hungarian army sought to obtain a compact, mobile weapon that could damage lightly armored targets. The project, led by eng. ltc. col. Ferenc Földi (Institute of Military Technology of Hungarian People Army), culminated in the creation of the Gepárds.

The M1 fired only one shot and would then have to be manually reloaded. Other difficulties such as high recoil also plagued the M1. Improvements, such as the addition of a carrier/lafette backpack and a longer barrel, led to the M1A1 variant, but at 21 kilograms its combat weight was deemed excessive.

The M1 was essentially a sniper weapon, not primarily intended for military field application, but for anti-terrorist police and special forces\' use, who operate on the \"one shot, one hit\" principle. The single shot action was designed to reduce the number of moving parts and allow for extreme precision, five hits out of five shots fit in a 25 centimeter radius circle at 1300 meters.

A semi-automatic version of the M1 was later produced. Dubbing it the M2, designers reduced its barrel length and weight. An even shorter paratrooper variant dubbed M2A2 made it more favorable to Airborne and Special Operations Troops, especially because it could be fired from the hip, thanks to the advanced recoil mechanism.

M3, with a larger 14.5 mm caliber, added new destructive capability as well as increased accuracy and range, making the M3 the most popular of the Gepard rifles.

The M4 and M5 werer improvements on the M2, with stronger materials and better reliability. M5 is a bolt action rifle for military sharpshooters and weighs only 13 kilograms, while the M4 is a semi-automatic anti-materiel rifle. The massive 10-round drum magazine, so characteristic of the M2 and M3, was replaced with a straight box magazine design with a capacity for five rounds. Later M4 and M5 production fires either Russian or NATO 12.7 mm ammunition as the gun barrel is field replaceable.

The last version was the M6. This rifle used the 14.5 mm round, like the M3, but featured stronger parts and an improved scope. The M3 and M6 are strictly anti-material rifles. The accuracy of the 14.5mm round degrades rapidly at ranges beyond 1000 meters. Its high destructive power is very efficient in taking out hovering helicopters, APCs or mobile radar stations, however.

The Akizuki-class DDG (formerly known as "DD19")